This invention relates to methods and apparatus of particular use in the manufacture of dynamoelectric machine magnetic stator assemblies and more particularly to improved methods and apparatus involving placement of winding turns in injection tooling; transporting injection tooling along with a magnetic core to an injection station; transferring injection tooling to an injection machine; aligning a magnetic core with the transferred injection tooling; axially injecting coils on the injection tooling into axial slots of the magnetic core; and removing injection tooling from the injection machine.
In the construction of magnetic stator cores used in dynamoelectric machines, such as electric motors and generators, it has become necessary, primarily for reasons of economy, to maximize equipment utilization through the development of new and improved methods of fabricating such cores. Conventional methods and apparatus are known whereby coil winding and insertion are performed at a single operating station but since generally there are large discrepancies in time for performing the winding operation versus the insertion operation, the equipment generally is not being efficiently utilized. Other techniques have been known whereby coil winding and coil insertion have been performed at different stations on a rotary indexing table arrangement, but such methods because of winding time versus coil insertion time still do not always result in a highly efficient utilization of equipment.
Other known methods and apparatus such as disclosed in Patent No. 3,691,606 have employed the transportation of a wedge guide housing with injection tools therein between coil winding and coil injection stations. This type of approach improves equipment utilization in that multiple winding machines may be employed with a lesser number of coil insertion stations.
However, the requirement of an entire wedge guide housing for each coil insertion tool results in an added expense and problems may occur with insertion tools which would necessarily require removal of both the wedge guide housing and the insertion tooling. Further, a transporting assembly with no provision for moving a core apart from insertion tooling may require a separate station having additional equipment and/or operator to load the core. In addition, further provisions must be made to compensate for different stator core heights and for preventing core movement during the insertion operation.
In order to fabricate windings for different stator core height, it has generally been necessary in known prior art approaches to perform equipment adjustments independently at each operating station with such adjustments being time consuming and often requiring shutdown of an entire line.
In addition, known prior art approaches to fabricating stator magnetic cores generally have involved an operational set up either for strictly automatic coil placement on insertion tooling or for manual placement of coil with difficulty being encountered in intermingling both manual and automatic coil placement.
Accordingly, the general object of the invention is to provide new and improved methods and apparatus for fabricating dynamoelectric machine stator cores and a more specific object is providing new and improved ways which overcome the problems and deficiencies mentioned above.
A further object of this invention is to provide methods and apparatus for fabricating dynamoelectric stator assemblies in which separate injection tooling is rapidly selectable for each magnetic core.
A further object is to provide a stator core fabrication process whereby injection tooling apart from a wedge guide housing may be moved into an alignment position at a winding station and then manipulated to perform an entire winding process directly onto the injection tooling at the one winding station.
Another object is to provide ways of fabricating windings for a magnetic core whereby either manual or automatic placement of coils on injection tooling may be used.
Another object is to provide a new and improved way of transporting both injection tooling and a core apart from each other to an injection station.
Another object is to provide new and improved methods of fabricating stator magnetic assemblies of varying core heights.
A further object is to provide a transporting device with provisions for effecting proper alignment of the injection tooling and stator core at different operating stations.
A still further object is to provide a transporting device with core retaining capabilities for use in coil insertion at an injection station.